Bears

Giving polar bears a second chance of life in the wild

Born Free’s Bear project was established in 2001 to help bears in need.

Born Free investigates how ‘polar bear watching’ affects bear behaviour and encourages good codes of practice; rescues orphan polar bear cubs in Canada and returns them to the wild; investigates and exposes the illegal trade in bear gall bladders for the Asian medicine market; helps rescue bears from bile farms in China and Vietnam; helps care for rescued dancing bears in India; and campaigns to end the exploitation of bears in zoos and circuses.

Born Free’s Bear project:

Protects threatened polar bears and funds conservation projects

Investigates the plight of captive polar bears

Campaigns to prevent wild bear exploitation

Investigates and exposes the plight of captive bears

Born Free Acheivements:

Thanks to our UK Polar Bear Surveys, only one British zoos keeps polar bears and there is great global awareness to the plight of bears in captivity (1986 & 1992)

Stopping orphan polar bear cubs being sent to zoos by successfully adopting them to surrogate mothers, giving them a second chance of life in the wild (2001)

Encouraging European farmers to use dogs rather than guns to protect livestock from the threat of bears and other predators (2001)

Fighting the global trade in bear products (2005)

Supporting the rescue of Moon bears from bile farms in China and Vietnam (2006)